Courtesy Catholic Diocese of Wichita

Father Emil Kapaun, a pipe-smoking Army chaplain who later saved men in battle and in captivity.

In a moment laced with modern irony and timeless glory, President Barack Obama awarded Thursday the Medal of Honor — the nation’s highest military decoration — to an Army chaplain and sainthood candidate who died 62 years ago in a North Korean prison camp.

Father Emil Kapaun, once a Kansas farm boy, has been hailed for decades by fellow POWs as a rousing, one-man resistance front, rallying starving inmates with clean water and stolen food while enraging his captors by openly mocking their pro-communist speeches. But days before the Catholic priest succumbed at age 35, ill with dysentery, pneumonia and a blood clot in his leg, he also raised his hand to bless and forgive the guards.

At the White House, Obama posthumously offered the medal, encased in glass, to Kapaun's tearful nephew, Ray, in front of several former American prisoners who suffered with the chaplain. Meanwhile, in the Asian country where the honoree once flashed his quiet bravado, North Korean forces are reportedly readying a missile for launch.

“Interesting timing, isn’t it?” said Amy Pavlacka, spokeswoman for the Catholic Diocese of Wichita where the chaplain served before the Korean War. “Father Kapaun took care of every person he could. He even sat with his enemy. If, globally, we all could just take a piece of that, if all of us had learned anything from him, I don’t know that we’d be in this current situation.”

His brazen battlefield reputation — a swift departure from his gentle Kansas demeanor — was cemented in the months before Chinese forces overran U.S. soldiers and snatched survivors during the November 1950 Battle of Unsan. The chaplain had repeatedly dashed through machine gun fire to pull wounded soldiers to safety, according to witness accounts compiled by Roy Wenzl, co-author of a new book on Kapaun.

An Army captain in life, Kapaun is being touted for Catholic sainthood, an arduous process that typically takes years or even decades and ultimately requires the pope's approval. 

“This is an amazing story,” Obama said. “Father Kapaun has been called a shepherd in combat boots. His fellow prisoners, who felt his grace and his mercy, called him a saint, a blessing from God.” 

'The Good Thief'
After he and other Americans were imprisoned at a camp near the Chinese border with sub-zero temperatures looming, U.S. troops died at a rate of 20 to 40 per night due to lack of food and clean water, Wenzl said. The chaplain remolded strips of roofing tin into pots so that dirty snow could be scraped from the soil then boiled for drinking. He was dubbed “The Good Thief” after successfully pilfering provisions from the Chinese soldiers.

Courtesy Catholic Diocese of Wichita

Father Kapaun, right, helps carry a wounded soldier to safety in Korea.

Courtesy Catholic Diocese of Wichita

Father Kapaun was known as a bike lover even in the Army.

Food remained so scarce, however, some American prisoners began to swipe scraps from their fellow inmates. The priest offered a community solution through a subtle suggestion.

“Father Kapaun put his own rations on the floor and said a prayer: ‘Lord, thank you for this food that we not only can eat but that we can share.’ In his own quiet way,” Wenzl said, “that was calculated for effect.”

As were the chaplain’s antics when captors tried to use hunger, the frigid weather and torrents of spoken propaganda in an effort coerce U.S. prisoners to abandon their country and adopt communism.

Assuming de facto leadership, Kapaun urged the men to “keep eating, don’t give up,” according to Wenzl. “He told them, ‘We’re going to get out of here. The Army won’t leave us.’” Publicy, he frequently embarrassed the Chinese speakers during their orchestrated talks on communism to the POWs, which the troops had dubbed “brainwashing.”

“It wasn’t just that he was patriotic. It wasn’t that simple. He thought if the men gave up on their flag, their loyalty, their country, and to their oath as soldiers,” Wenzl said, “they would give up on life.”

Slideshow: Medal of Honor recipients

/

A look at heroes from a post-9/11 era of war

Launch slideshow

More then two years after Kapaun died in an isolated shed that the guards called a “hospital,” the Korean War ended. Both sides exchanged prisoners of war. When some of the troops emerged from that camp near China, the first story they told other Americans was an account of their POW chaplain — and how he had kindled their spirits in the dead cold of a hopeless winter.

“A group of our POWs emerged carrying a large, wooden crucifix, nearly four feet tall," Obama said. "They had spent months on it, secretly collecting firewood, carving it — the cross and the body — using radio wire for a crown of thorns. It was a tribute to their friend, their chaplain, their fellow prisoner, who had touched their souls and saved their lives.”

Related: Obama awards Medal of Honor to Afghan battle hero Clinton Romesha

The U.S. is deploying 14 new ground-based missile interceptors in Alaska to counter renewed nuclear threats from North Korea and Iran, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Friday.

The new interceptors will be based at Fort Greely, an Army launch site about 100 miles southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska, and are projected to be fully deployed by 2017, Hagel said. The additions will bring the U.S.-based ground interceptor deployment from 30 to 44, including four that are based in California.

That will boost U.S. missile defense capability by 50 percent and "make clear to the world that the United States stands firm against aggression," he said in a briefing at the Pentagon.

The announcement comes as North Korea has been making bellicose threats to void the armistice that ended the Korean War and launch a nuclear attack on the U.S. The U.S. and South Korea began annual military drills this week despite the North Korean threats.

Hagel said the U.S. would also shift some "resources," which he didn't specify, from the delayed Aegis anti-missile program in Europe to U.S.-based defenses, saying the Aegis program was "lagging" because of reduced congressional funding. And he reiterated previously announced plans to add a second U.S. anti-ballistic missile radar installation in Japan.

Taking all of the moves together, "we will be able to add protection against missiles from Iran sooner while also proving protection against the threat from North Korea," he said.

Even before the announcement, Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., a member of the Armed Services Committee, criticized the news, saying it was too little and too late.

"I applaud the Obama administration's decision, but it shouldn't have taken the predictable saber-rattling from North Korea to bring this about," Ayotte said in a statement Friday. 

Pointing to Iran's nuclear program, Ayotte called on the Obama administration to "move expeditiously to construct an East Coast missile defense site."

"Americans living in the Eastern United States should have the same level of missile defense protection as those in the West," she said.

Courtney Kube and Kelly O'Donnell of NBC News contributed to this report. Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.

Watch US News videos on NBCNews.com

This story was originally published on Fri Mar 15, 2013 7:28 PM EDT

/

Jill Kelley leaves her home in Tampa, Fla., on Nov. 13.

Jill Kelley, the Tampa, Fla., socialite who inadvertently launched the FBI investigation that led to the resignation of CIA Director David Petraeus, will be sacked as an “honorary consul” for South Korea because she used the title for personal gain, a senior official said Monday during a U.S. visit.

South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Kyou-hyun first revealed Kelley’s removal from the post, which pays $2,500 a year, on Monday during a visit to Washington, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.

"It's not suitable to the status of honorary consul that (she) sought to be involved in commercial projects and peddle influence," Yonhap quoted Kim as saying.

The Associated Press reported that an unidentified government official in Seoul confirmed the action on Tuesday.

The South Korean Embassy in Washington, D.C., did not immediately return phone calls from NBC News seeking comment.

It was not immediately clear what Kim was referring to as far as Kelley’s alleged efforts to benefit from the honorary consul post.

A New York businessman, Adam Victor, told Dateline NBC that Kelley was introduced to him at the Republican National Convention in Tampa in August as someone whose friendship with Petraeus would help facilitate a no-bid deal with South Korea on a coal-gasification project. She would supposedly be in a position to help broker the billion-dollar deal directly with the Korean president, and expected a 2 percent commission, according to Victor, president and chief executive officer of TransGas Development Systems.

ABC News has reported that it reviewed emails that appear to support Victor’s account. 

But Abbe Lowell, a Washington, D.C., attorney representing Kelley, on Tuesday disputed Victor's account, telling NBC News that the businessman misrepresented the fee that was discussed, that Kelley never accepted any offer and that Victor falsely claimed that the discussions had anything to do with her connections with the U.S. military.

The 37-year-old Kelley also cited her honorary post in 9-1-1 calls complaining about members of the media who besieged her house after the Petraeus scandal broke, incorrectly maintaining that it entitled her to some type of diplomatic protection.

"I'm an honorary consul general, so I have inviolability, so they should not be able to cross my property," she said on tapes released earlier this month. "I don't know if you want to get diplomatic protection involved as well, because that's against the law to cross my property because, you know, it's inviolable."

A senior South Korean Foreign Ministry official who handles consulate affairs in the United States told the AP on Tuesday that honorary consuls don't have diplomatic immunity, and that the ministry applies much less strict standards in appointing them than it does for potential government officials.

Kelley also had worked as a volunteer “social liaison” to MacDill Air Force Base until mid-November, when her participation in the “Friends of MacDill” program was revoked as the Petraeus scandal erupted.

Kelley met Petraeus after he took over as head of U.S. Central Command at MacDill in October 2008, and became friends with him and his wife, Holly, during his time there.

Related stories

Kelley emails: Petraeus, Allen asked me to help silence 'Bubba the Love Sponge'

As their secret dissolved, Petraeus, Broadwell chatted at awards dinner

Numerous government and law enforcement officials have told NBC News that Kelley inadvertently triggered the FBI investigation that led to Petraeus’ resignation as CIA chief on Nov. 9, citing an extramarital affair.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say Kelley complained in mid-May to an FBI agent she was acquainted with about harassing anonymous emails warning her to stay away from Petraeus. The agent turned over the emails to the local FBI cyber investigations unit, which traced them to Paula Broadwell, Petreus’ biographer, the officials said.

In the course of the investigation, the agents discovered evidence that Petreaus and Broadwell had engaged in an extramarital affair, they said.

Kelley has largely remained silent since her role in the case became public shortly after Petraeus resigned. She and her husband, Scott, issued a single statement on Nov. 11, saying, "We and our family have been friends with Gen. Petraeus and his family for over five years. We respect his and his family's privacy and want the same for us and our three children."

In a separate investigation, the Pentagon’s inspector general is looking into “potentially inappropriate” emails that Kelley exchanged with Petraeus’ temporary successor as CentCom commander, Marine Gen. John Allen, defense officials tell NBC News.

The officials say a small number of the emails contained language that could be considered “inappropriate” or even “suggestive.” They also said that the investigation was deemed necessary to remove any suggestion that the Pentagon was covering up any improprieties by Allen, who remains in command of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan pending the outcome of the probe.

And sources close to Kelley have denied speculation that she had any kind of inappropriate relationship with Allen and praised her work at MacDill, which they noted was recognized by authorities there.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

More content from NBCNews.com:

• Woman denies murder to avenge husband's death
• Columbine survivor turns to Occupy LA to battle foreclosure
• 'They didn't seem afraid': Wild coyotes pay visit to Chicago's Wrigley Field
• Top 10 fugitive went to extremes to evade capture in Mexico
• Powerball jackpot to hit at least $425 million on Wednesday
• Autopsy: Cockroach-eating contest winner choked to death
• Video: UPS ‘boot camp’ preps workers for the holidays

Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

NASA

This satellite-based image shows Super Typhoon Sanba in the Philippine Sea on Thursday.

A storm packing 145 mph winds was bearing down on the southern end of Japan's Okinawa Island, where locals and U.S. military personnel were quickly stocking up and battening down. 

Typhoon Sanba had winds equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane. (Named storms west of the international dateline in the Northwest Pacific Ocean are called typhoons, not hurricanes.)

Earlier Friday, Sanba's winds had reached 178 mph, making it a "super typhoon" in the jargon of meteorologists. That was the equivalent of a top-rated Category 5 hurricane.

After swiping southern Okinawa this weekend, Sanba is projected to make landfall in South Korea with winds still around 100 mph.

"The center will pass close to Okinawa this weekend and then Sanba, in a less-intense but still potent state, is expected to reach South Korea Sunday night or Monday," weather.com reported.

On Okinawa, the Stars and Stripes news website for U.S. military personnel was reporting that military commissaries were packed with people buying food and emergency supplies.

"We’re already seeing/feeling Super Typhoon Sanba’s most outer bands," the report stated. "If it’s sitting outside the garage, put it inside. If the garage door is still open, shut it. If the trampoline is still up, take it down."

Kadena Air Base, with 18,000 servicemen, is the U.S. facility closest to Sanba and should see winds around 60 mph.

Up to a foot of rain was forecast for the area and satellite data shows that some of Sanba's bands were dumping 3 inches of rain an hour, NASA said in a statement.

Related: Ahead of typhoon, China ships approach islands claimed by Japan

Some 80,000 U.S. citizens are on Okinawa, nearly 30,000 of them U.S. military personnel. Okinawa's total population is some 1.3 million people. 

More world stories from NBC News:

• Man behind anti-Islam film reportedly is Egypt-born ex-con
• Ex-Navy SEAL killed in Libya respected as highly trained pilot, marksman
• 33,000 told to flee as volcano erupts near Guatemala tourist zone
• Why films and cartoons of Muhammad spark violence
• Australia moves to ban fishing trawler with 900-foot-long net
• Protesters storm US Embassy in Yemeni capital
• Libya pledges to help US catch American officials' killers

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Lee Jae-Won / Reuters

A shopper picks up Australian beef at a Lotte Mart store in Seoul, South Korea, on Wednesday. Lotte Mart was one of two major South Korean retailers to halt sales of U.S. beef.

SEOUL, South Korea -- Two major South Korean retailers suspended sales of U.S. beef Wednesday following the discovery of mad cow disease in a U.S. dairy cow. Reaction elsewhere in Asia was muted with Japan saying there's no reason to restrict imports.

South Korea's No. 2 and No. 3 supermarket chains, Home Plus and Lotte Mart, said they have "temporarily" halted sales of U.S. beef to calm worries among South Koreans.

"We stopped sales from today," said Chung Won-hun, a Lotte Mart spokesman. "Not that there were any quality issues in the meat but because consumers were worried."

South Korea is the world's fourth-largest importer of U.S. beef, buying 107,000 tons of the meat worth $563 million in 2011.

California mad cow 'just a random mutation'

The new case of mad cow disease is the first in the U.S. since 2006. It was discovered in a dairy cow in California, but health authorities said Tuesday the animal was never a threat to the nation's food supply.

Reuters reported that the first U.S. mad cow case, which was identified in 2003, caused a $3 billion drop in exports. It took until 2011 before those exports fully recovered.

Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is fatal to cows and can cause a deadly human brain disease in people who eat tainted beef. U.S. authorities said the dead California cow has what scientists call an atypical case of BSE, meaning that a random mutation in the animal rather than infected cattle feed was the cause.

Carcass quarantined
The infected cow, the fourth ever discovered in the U.S., was found as part of an Agriculture Department surveillance program that tests about 40,000 cows a year for the disease.

USDA confirms 4th mad cow case in US

The USDA is still tracing the exact life of the infected animal, and the carcass of the cow is under quarantine and will be destroyed.

The cow was found at a rendering plant, which processes diseased or sick animals into mainly non-edible products for use in things like soap or glue.

Gosia Wozniacka / AP

The latest U.S. mad cow case is centered on the Baker Commodities transfer station in Hanford, Calif.

First discovered in Britain in 1986, the disease has killed more than 150 people and 184,000 cows globally, mainly in Britain and Europe, but strict controls have tempered its spread. The first U.S. case was found in late 2003 in an animal imported from Canada, followed by two more in 2005 and 2006. Two of those cases were also "atypical".

The news spread quickly in South Korea, which imposed a ban on U.S. beef in 2003 along with China and other countries because of mad cow disease concerns. Seoul's resumption of U.S. beef imports in 2008 sparked daily candlelight vigils and street protests for several months as many South Koreans still regarded the meat as a public health risk.

South Korea imports U.S. beef from cows less than 30 months old and there is no direct link between U.S. beef imported into South Korea and the infected animal, the country's agriculture ministry said in a statement. The infected U.S. cow was older than 30 months.

Public concern
But the ministry decided to step up inspections of U.S. beef and request detailed information on the case from the United States — initial measures to appease public concern while avoiding possible trade conflicts.

"We are still reviewing whether we will stop quarantine inspections," Chang Jae-hong, deputy director of the ministry's quarantine policy division, told The Associated Press by telephone.

Halting quarantine inspections would prevent U.S. beef from being delivered to stores as it couldn't clear customs.

At a Home Plus store in southwestern Seoul, some shoppers said they were not worried about U.S. beef as long as officials had said there were no health risks.

But others criticized the U.S. government as "arrogant" and "inconsiderate" in asserting that the discovery of an infected cow would have no impact on its meat exports.

"I won't eat meat from the countries where mad cow disease was found," said Kim Woo-sig, a self employed 47-year-old.

In Japan, officials said the country's import policy was unchanged.

'No need for change'
Japan, the world's third-largest consumer of U.S. beef and veal, restricts its imports of U.S. beef to cows of 20 months or younger.

"There is no need for change," in Japan's import rules, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told reporters.

But the latest mad cow case may jeopardize moves to expand American beef sales in Taiwan, where the government recently sparked protests by allowing sales of U.S. beef containing ractopamine, a growth additive.

Taiwan's legislature on Wednesday indefinitely postponed a planned discussion on U.S. beef imports. It is likely the government engineered the delay, fearing that the opposition would stoke sentiment against U.S. beef.

There was no immediate response from China's government. Beijing no longer has an outright ban on U.S. beef but exporters have been unable to overcome continued barriers involving inspection of the meat.

The news comes at a time of booming beef exports, with total shipments reaching a record last year thanks to expanding markets in countries like Russia and Canada, according to Commerce Department data.

But exports to Japan, Mexico and South Korea, which bought more than 80 percent of U.S. beef and veal exports in 2003, have yet to match their earlier peaks, with many of them maintaining certain restrictions that may help temper any fallout.

Mexico, which buys more U.S. beef than any other country, said it has no plans to halt imports and that it would maintain the same regimen of inspections for trade across the border.

Vietnam, which suspended U.S. beef imports between December 2003 and September 2011, also said it had not changed its policy on U.S. beef in response to the latest news.

It has also been a difficult period in the domestic market, with firms still reeling from fallout over a ground beef filler that critics called "pink slime", which was pulled from grocery store shelves and forced one producer to idle several factories and another to file for bankruptcy.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.